The Actifry & AirFryer Thread - Merged

The original Philips so 0.8 KG according to the Amazon listing whatever that means. Surely volume is a better way to measure these things than weight?

Its more than enough for one, Ive done breakfasts frys for 4 out of it before, 2 people should be grand with it.

Thanks to you all, very helpful indeed!

0.8kg, dunno what that is in litres

Right, yiz have me convinced!

I spotted the one that Thargor linked in HN for what seemed like a good price, so I've ordered it.

I hope it's as good as I hope!!

Machine arrived (via a neighbour's house 🙄), and I'm very excited about using it!

There's no manual/usage booklet at all, so I googled a bit - and there seems to be all sorts of controversy about how it's impossible to clean it, and your house will fill with SMOKE and all your SMOKE ALARMS will go off and you'll be poisoned with the TOXIC SMOKE....

What do you guys do in terms of cleaning???

Kitchen degreaser and wash after each use does it. Only something particularly oily where some might get blown up onto the element might cause smoke.

Don't overfill and you should be fine.

I have the Lidl one that they were selling a few months ago. Silvercrest. It's my first air fryer so have nothing to compare it to, but it is a savage piece of kit. Gets a lot of use.

I have already destroyed the non stick coating on the bottom though. I had tin foil down to catch grease, but didn't bother removing it after cooking and the tin foil stuck to the bottom. When I ripped the tin foil off, I also ripped off a bit of non stick coating.

I have the Lidl silvercrest too few years now, I find it great. I wouldn't do sausages or burgers in it though, bit too greasy I think. Chips, chicken wings, breaded chicken, spice burgers all come out lovely in it.

Not sure how to quote your post bit by bit on this new boards. Is that possible? I'll just have to paste your comment bit by bit.

Crispiest, tastest chips (frozen Aldi skin-on ones) I've ever had - full marks!

They are pretty good. I found that they're best around the 10 minute mark - still a bit greasy like they came out of an oil fryer. But has a bit of crisp. Not a fan of them too dry/crispy. I'd try Aldi's skinny fries too, the McDonald style ones. Think they just call them French fries on the packet. Around 10 minutes again with a shake and they're perfect.

Fish-fingers - meh, managed to be soft and dry at the same time - I much prefer them done under a hot grill.

I found they went a bit shyt as well, they got all deformed. I think we forgot to apply the air fryer rule though - cut the cooking time. If it says 10 minutes on the packet try 6 or 7 minutes. Got stuck to the basket too. Still tasty though. I was surprised at how much grease dripped out of them actually.

Tried sausages today - and holy moly, the SMOKE!!!! 😱 Had to open two windows to try and fumigate the place, and I'm freezing now.... I also prefer the crispy skins of the sausages done low and slow in a pan, so I won't be doing those again!

Deep fried sausages are the only way. Give it a go. It'll give you that cafe / hospital / hotel style sausage. (because that's what they all do - deep fry them to ****). Tried them in the air fryer and they were to tough. Like eating pig cracklings.

Is it OK to soak the bottom third of the drawer/basket in hot sudsy water (just covering the mesh)? I don't know why I think it might not be - I can't see any moving or electrical parts - but just in case I wanted to check - it was a greasy mess after the saussies today, and a divil to clean.

I do that all the time. Don't use any super strong degreaser stuff. I've heard that can mess with the coating.

Next test is going to be a fresh beefburger - will this also turn into a greasy smokefest? Anyone have any tips for doing them (Angus burger from Lidl).

Not sure what is causing all these smoke fests. I do burgers all the time. (Lamb burgers from Aldi - 10000% recommended)

I've heard your first use of the air fryer can cause a bit of smoke. But you've obviously had a good few runs of it. The only other thing I can think of is bits of food have splattered onto the heating element above, and they're burning off it. What is your exact model of air fryer? I think your sausages were probably splattering grease up onto the heating element.

One golden rule with AirFryers that I've found is to always heat it up empty for 3-4 minutes before adding the food you want cooked and once heated I also spray the empty tray with those one cal sunflower oil bottles. They emit a very fine spray which creates a very light coating on the tray floor and walls. I find this combination minimises anything, particularly anything breadcrumbed like fish fingers or chicken nuggets etc from sticking to the tray and it also results in a crispier coat as the outside of the food heats more quickly than it does if it goes into a cold tray.

Just on the sausages- anything that has high fat content will spit the fat upwards into the element and cause white smoke to come out of the air vent at the back of the airfryer. Bacon is particularly bad. I run mine underneath an extraction fan that is switched on anyway. If there is loads of smoke billowing out of it you can open the drawer (do this underneath an extractor) and that will release a plume of smoke and then it wont smoke so bad at the back.

A poster here @rubadub had a solution, get one of those frying pan splatter guards and with a scissors cut out the shape of the basket. Then when doing sausages put the mesh into the basket on top of the sausages. This should help prevent fat spitting upwards and reduce smoke.

Straight into the air fryer. Around 10 minutes -ish at 200 degrees, turning half way. There'll probably be a bit of trial and error as we have different machines and different thickness of burgers.

I would say sear it afterwards? Just very quickly in a hot pan. I don't think it'd be possible to sear a pink lump of meat without actually cooking most of it. Although I've never tried.

I have a ninja and I love it.... but if i had a choice again, i would go for the double barrel one